This new article, co-authored by Stefan Giljum and published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology, estimates the material flows required along the whole production chains of imports and exports for selected Latin American countries: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Mexico. These indirect material flows (also called “ecological rucksacks”) of imports and exports are calculated as “raw material equivalents”, i.e. each material incorporated in a product (e.g. plastics or steel) is transformed into its equivalent of primary resource extraction (e.g. oil or crude iron ore). Results are set out for the year 2003 for each of the countries and in time series for the years 1977, 1986, 1996, and 2003 in the case of Chile. The findings show that including these indirect material flows is important, when calculating resource use indicators for Latin American countries, which export large amounts of primary commodities. For example in the case of Chile, the trade balance in terms of material flows is almost balanced, when only direct material flows are considered. However, when the ecological rucksacks of the exported products are included in the calculation, the trade balance is clearly negative (i.e. Chile exporting much higher amounts of resources than importing from the rest of the world). The results support SERIs demand to use comprehensive resource use indicators (including ecological rucksacks) to evaluate global resource flows and resource consumption of countries and world regions.

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